Catholic Charity for the Homeless Turns Down Money from Hooters

​Apparently, money raised by women in tight, tiny outfits isn't needed to help St. Louis' homeless population. Yesterday, the St. Patrick Center booted Hooters off its roster of sixteen restaurants participating in a fundraiser scheduled for tomorrow night.

The event is called "Dine and Donate." Participating restaurants will donate a portion of the night's proceeds to the St. Patrick Center, which is a Catholic charity that helps more than 9,000 homeless people in the area with food, clothing, shelter and job placement.

The staff at Hooters, the charity said in a media statement, "have been longtime St. Patrick volunteers and donors."

And yet...But according to Kelly Peach, senior director of communication for
the charity, donors and others objected to the inclusion of the
cleavage-and-wings specialists.

"When we sent out the e-blast
letting people know about the Hooters portion, from the feedback, we
decided to cancel the Hooters portion," Peach tells Daily RFT.

A segment on the controversy
aired last night on KTVI (Fox-2). Since it aired,
Peach says, she's been hearing from people on both sides of the debate.

"We've
had people saying 'thank you,' and we've had people saying 'you
shouldn't have,'" she says. "It's fodder for a bigger issue, which is
conservatives versus liberals."

Ultimately, Peach says, they're a
Catholic organization first, under the aegis of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Despite their past working relationship with the restaurant,
Peach is unsure of any future events planned with them.

But the controversy has had one tangible effect on St. Patrick's bottom line, she says.

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First they won't adopt to gay couples, now they won't accept charitable donations from Hooters. Add to that my awful social experience at Catholic grade school and of course the sex abuse scandals, and it's a miracle I haven't "fallen away" yet. (no pun intended)